{"id":3003,"date":"2019-11-02T01:36:28","date_gmt":"2019-11-02T01:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/?p=3003"},"modified":"2026-03-12T09:16:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T09:16:18","slug":"united-nations-peacekeeping-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crunchlearning.com\/website_ec2cbfb0\/united-nations-peacekeeping-missions\/","title":{"rendered":"United Nations Peacekeeping Missions: A Detailed Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

United Nations peacekeeping<\/a> missions have played a significant role in several conflicts, including: the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Bosnian Genocide<\/a> and the Rwanda Genocide<\/a>. The United Nations<\/a> (UN) is an international organization that is headquartered in New York City, United States.\u00a0 It is one of the most important international organizations in the world today, as it deals with major issues facing humanity.\u00a0 For instance, the United Nations (UN) is tasked with promoting and maintaining peace between nations.\u00a0 This is achieved through several different ways, including the use of peacekeeping missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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WHAT IS PEACEKEEPING?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peacekeeping<\/a> is the act of maintaining peace between two groups of people or nations that are in a state of conflict.\u00a0 The United Nations (UN) achieves this by using a military force made up of soldiers, police officers and other personnel from across the different member nations of the UN.\u00a0 In general, these soldiers (referred to as \u2018peacekeepers\u2019) do not use military violence to maintain peace but rather act as a sort of referee in negotiations between the two opposing sides.\u00a0 United Nations peacekeepers do this by monitoring peace negotiations and ensuring both sides fulfill their promises of peace.\u00a0 Sometimes these UN peacekeepers are referred to as \u2018Blue Helmets\u2019 due to their distinctive blue helmets used while on mission.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Flag of the United Nations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPING – HISTORY<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Peacekeeping as a form of maintaining world peace became popular following the creation of the United Nations.\u00a0 The United Nations (UN) was the not the first international organization aimed at promoting and maintaining world peace.\u00a0 In fact, the League of Nations was created in 1920 following the death and destruction of World War I<\/a>.\u00a0 However, the League of Nations did not achieve its goals and ultimately failed due to conflicts that occurred in the timeframe between World War I and World War II<\/a>.\u00a0 Due to the failure of the League of Nations, the world sought to create a new international organization following the end of World War II<\/a>, which led to the creation of the United Nations (UN).\u00a0 In fact, the death and destruction caused by the events of World War II and the Holocaust<\/a> ultimately led to the creation of the UN, as the world sought to prevent other such events from occurring again.\u00a0 Peacekeeping was one of the methods that the newly created UN used to prevent regional conflicts from becoming global wars.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first UN peacekeeping mission was carried out in 1948 in the state of Israel.  At the time, there was a great deal of conflict between Israel and its neighboring Arab nations.  This was because the state of Israel had just been created out of the former Palestine, which created a conflict between the new Jewish state and its Muslim neighbors.  During a ceasefire between the nations, the UN sent in a force of peacekeepers to try to maintain the peace.  The mission was called the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) and was established on May 29th, 1948.  The UNSTO peacekeeping force was made up many different types of personnel who worked to maintain the ceasefire while also overseeing other agreements between the two sides.  In fact, the UNSTO still operates in the Middle East today as part of the UN\u2019s commitment to promote peace in the region.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another significant event in the history of peacekeeping and the United Nations was in the 1956 Suez Crisis.  The crisis was part of the larger conflict at the time between Israel and its Arab neighbors.  It began when the country of Egypt was invaded by Israel, the United Kingdom and France in late 1956.  The countries were fighting over control of the Suez Canal, which was (and remains still today) an important waterway connection between Europe and Asia.  A ceasefire was declared in 1957, and the UN sent in a peacekeeping force at the suggestion of Canadian Lester B. Pearson.  At the time, Pearson was the Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs, but he also served as Canadian Prime Minister from 1963 until 1968.  Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his efforts in ending the crisis, and is today often viewed as the \u2018father of modern peacekeeping\u2019.\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout its history, the UN has launched many more peacekeeping missions, and some of these have become very famous.  Below is a short list of some of these memorable peacekeeping missions and other significant events related to the United Nations:\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n